Ok....so did you know that there is a tradition in Columbia where the person who´s birthday it is, gets egged and floured?  And well....the majority of the people here that aren´t Italian or tourists, are Columbian, Venezuelan and Cuban.  So, guess who got egged and floured on there birthday?  Yes, I did.  It was...CRAZY!  Some recent converts, Carolina and Christian (Columbians) invited us over to have a little party and well they whipped out the eggs and the flour at the end!  It was probably the most memorable birthday I´ll ever have haha!  I had a great day!  We had eaten with the Italians, Ana and Mario, earlier during medio dia which was super good!  She made me cheesecake....and on top of that, my companion had actually made me cheesecake too!  haha!  I got 2 cheesecakes!  Later we passed by bishop´s house.  We teach English lessons to Bishop´s wife, Ani, and she had made me cupcakes!!  She is the cutest....Aubs, I thought of you, her cupcakes were super cute just like yours.  Her son, Gabriel took a picture with me:)  He´s the sweetest little boy ever.  And then later on, we ended up at Carolina and Christian´s and I got egged and floured!  Great day :)

Also, recently there have been a few tourists coming in for church that we get to translate for!  Last week I met this lady from England named Joy.  Oh my she was adorable!  They just use some really funny lingo that is so hilarious!  I wonder what it would be like to serve there!  She told me that her husband had passed away and that she just wanted to pass away to be with him, it was sad, but then she was so funny at the same time because she was like (think of a british accent saying this haha), "So, I just want to die to be with my husband, but the other day I received a revelation from God and I became rather cross.  He told me that I couldn´t die yet until I had helped someone understand the scriptures!"  She was a hoot!  But, it was really sweet to hear her sweet testimony of the scriptures and how she is actually now sharing her knowledge of the scriptures with one of her grandchildren who isn´t a member :)  Heavenly Father is so good.  There are so many little things that he does every day to help us, and most of the time we just can´t see those little things because we´re looking for the big things :)  That lady just made my day.  Then the next Sunday, yesterday there were some people from Ireland, Scotland and Germany who came!  I´m just loving meeting so many foreigners!  I love hearing their accents!

So, today has been a really great day!  A really nice Columbian lady in our ward told us the other day that she wanted to pay for us to go and get a pedicure on our p-day, so I got a pedicure today!!  We felt so spoiled it was so fun!  First one I´ve ever had in my life!  Mom...if you haven´t ever gotten one, you should go sometime!  You would love it!  Anyway, so that was pretty much all the excitement for today:)  And this week......this is exciting news....we are allowed one culture activity during our entire mission (whether it be a REAL madrid game, a bull fight, etc..) so there´s this really cool flamenco dancing show that we found out was here and me and my companion haven´t had our culture activity yet, so we´re going to go this Wednesday!  We are super excited!!!!!!  

So funny note about the Spanish culture...I think I´ve told you this before, but in case you didn´t know...they are VERY dramatic people!  Like...REALLY dramatic!  Most of the time it is comical, but sometimes they really do live soap opera lives!  It´s just crazy.  For example, when they talk to you....even if they don´t know you, they immediately say things like, "Hola, mi reina, mi cielo, mi flor, mi cariño...etc." (Hello my queen, my heaven, my flower, my love, etc.) haha!  I´ve just noticed alot of Columbians saying that here alot lately and I think it´s so funny and so Latino!  Sometimes, you´ve gotta watch out for the creepers, but for the most part it´s just what they say and is a part of their culture to say things like that as terms of endearment.  It cracks me up :)

We had a really great JA´s activity here (Jovenes Adultos-Young Single Adults).  We did an egg drop and had them split up in teams to try and build something with a few materials they were given to protect an egg so that when we dropped it later, it wouldn´t break.  There were ALOT of people and they loved it and it was really unifying and wonderful!  There are some really incredible JAs here, returned missionaries who are helping strengthen these JAs members so much.  There are alot of JAs who need alot of help and friendship, so it was such a good activity to bring people together.  

I am so grateful for the time I´m having here as a missionary.  It just makes me want to be a better member missionary at home more than ever!  We have such a responsibility to help people understand the knowledge we have.  I know we can´t do everything, but we should never under-estimate our faith in others and we need to always recognize that are faith does make a difference, no matter how small it may seem.  

I love the Gospel with all of my heart!  I hope you all have the best week ever.  Thanks again for the birthday wishes!  I love you!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday to Hermana